The Legend of Zelda Dark Requiem
by luciferous
Summary: Chapter 2 is up... Jared, banished begins his trek into Hyrule and before he gets far hes already got himself mixed up with a Hyrule girl, but who is she? And Gannondorf begins to his final assault on the castle
1. Loss

The Legend of Zelda: Dark Requiem

Chapter One - Loss

The rain poured down soaking everything, the once solid road now lay in muddy ruin, the only thing preventing it from being classed as a river is the swift galloping of a horse over it, the hooded figure hunches over the horses neck, protecting a small bundle from the worst of the rain, she whispers in the horses ear and is rewarded with a loud neigh from the beast and a sudden surge in speed, on the crest of the hill in the distance several riders on large wolf like creatures appear, the riders armour gleams in the deluge, their large bristly snouts sniff at the air as the woman pulls her horse to a halt, the wolf riders finally notice her and with a wave of its spear the lead Moblin issues a cry and charges towards her.

The woman reaches into her clothing and withdraws a long sword its blade slices through the air and some how catches the non-existent light, letting out a fierce shout she charges towards the riders, she releases the reigns of the horse and eases herself gracefully into a standing position on her horse. As the Moblin gets close, she dives at the horrible porcine creature, the sword, passing through its armour as if it was so much paper, she pushes the body from its steed and in one mighty arc takes the head of the wolf clean off, she slides from the carcass, bending to place the bundle just under the still warm corpse, she stands and swings her bow from her back focusing on the other two riders.

Riding side by side the remaining Moblin's bear down on the insolent woman, sneering as they draw their scimitars, this was supposed to be an easy mission but the woman had already slaughtered a dozen of their battalion, they had been told that under no circumstances should anyone be allowed to escape the castle town, and this woman had made a break for it from a hidden escape route, the Mighty Gannondorf would execute them if they failed to retrieve this Shei'kah… this woman.

The woman pulls back her arrow and prays to the Goddess Din, the tip of the arrow bursts into flame as the looses it, the arrows flight is true as it hits the lead of the two Moblin's, the fire engulfed it and its wolf, in the confusion the burning monster steers his beast into it's remaining comrade, despite the down pour the fire spreads and both remaining riders and their steeds crumple to the ground in a smouldering heap, the woman whistles and her horse comes cantering back to her, she mounts and heads towards the tree line.

'They will never look for us in here my dear Link'

Deep within the forest, children's laughter can be heard, in deep green shadows they can be seen running around after each other, their bodies clad in fabric of green with leaves and vines entwined to make body adornments

'Come on you slow poke… he he, you will never catch me like this!'

A green haired girl barrels into a clearing, suddenly she grinds to a halt, something is wrong, the air in the clearing hums with the silence – the rain has stopped, but no, there is something else, barely on the edge of her senses.

A taller blonde haired boy sprints into the clearing and bowls the girl over, she kicks him off of her and stands up, she holds out a hand to silence his complaints and cocks her head, listening.

In the distance a steady pounding can be heard, it gets closer, so close its almost upon them and then a blood curdling scream rends the very air of the clearing, the scream although terrifying was definitely female, the two children instantly sprint for the sound, the boy drawing a dagger made with a gemstone blade and the girl pulling a sling from her vine laced belt.

The arrow bit deep into her shoulder blade, her hand flailed behind her trying to pull the arrow out, she could already feel the cold touch of the Moblin's poison, the Child who up until now had been so quiet, was crying on the ground a few feet away from its mother, its platinum blonde hair could be seen poking from within its blanket, giving up on the arrow, Links mother crawls towards him, scooping up the sword she forces herself to turn and stand, the Moblin swings it's large curved blade over its head and brings it crashing down onto the woman who weakly blocks the blow, once again being driven to her knees, the monster reigns down blow after blow and the woman deflects each and everyone of them, in trying to defend herself, her hood had fallen away from her face, revealing long silver hair, ice blue eyes and a face so perfect in its flawlessness that only the most gifted of artisans would be able to reproduce its likeness…

The children run into the clearing where the woman kneels before a creature so ugly the forest children find it hard to look upon it, but seeing it raise its sword to strike her down both of them lunge forward, the green haired girl, lets loose a barrage of missiles, while the boy runs round the back of the creature with surprising speed, he jumps onto the Moblin's back, bringing his small dagger down repeatedly into the back of the monsters head, black blood splatters the child's face as his victim lets out a gurgling death rattle and falls over and yet the boy carries on thrusting his blade into the thick neck of the monster.

Links mother pulls herself upright holding her baby and looks down upon the fallen Moblin, her eyes widen with horror as she realises that her saviour is a small child now soaked in the Moblin's blood, another child, a green haired girl runs up to the boy and tries to tear him from the Pig, but he carries on plunging into the creatures back, its head now completely severed, tears stream down the boys face and his eyes are tightly shut.

'Jared! Please stop' sobs the little girl, 'we are not supposed to kill, not even these vile abominations, The Great Deku tree forbade it!'

The boy Jared suddenly stops 'Oh no, Saria what have I done…' the boy curls up next to the bloody corpse wailing and rocking'

Saria kneels by her friend and places a protective arm around him, she finally looks up to the woman, Links mother's eyes glaze over and she barely manages to whisper 'Take me to the forest guardian' before she topples over, Saria catches the babe as he falls and with her other hand, she puts two fingers in her mouth and lets out a loud but mournful whistle – in the shadows around the clearing, hundreds of children appear, and as they do, the rain begins to fall again.

The band of children march through their village towards the Deku tree's grotto, Saria leads them as they carry the unconscious woman, as they pass, faces appear at every door and window and then pour forth to accompany the rest, the storm unleashes torrent after torrent but none of them seem to notice as they enter the Great Deku Tree's haven.

The forest guardian, the great Deku tree, stood tall in the centre of its clearing, the bark of its mighty trunk bore the features of a face, two eye knots, two dents for nostrils and a gaping hole for a mouth, it would be but a scary looking tree if it wasn't for the movement of its feature when the children bring the woman in to lay her down in front of him, concern sweeps over his face as he looks down upon her.

'_Awaken child, awaken and be free of the poison coursing through thy veins'_

The woman's eyes flickered and finally opened, she gazed into the kind, yet featureless eyes of the great tree, she tried to sit but yipped with pain and collapsed back, her eyes suddenly snapped wide

'My Baby!' she cried 'Where is he..?'

'_He is safe with us, you must relax child'_

She visibly relaxes as the words form in her mind, she looks around her at the sad faces of the children and then the coldness began to take her again

'How long do I have left?

'_less than an hour, the enemies poison is stronger than my abilities to heal, but know this Shi'in of the Shei'kah your son is safe within my borders, he has a tough journey ahead of him, but I will make sure he is well prepared when the time comes'_

She nods at this and grits her teeth as pain washes over her 'Can I see him before I go?'

Saria steps forward holding the bundle out to Shi'in, she takes her baby and cradles him, from her lips escape the first few words of a lullaby and then she bows her head and sobs into the hair of her son, after a long time the sobs slow and stop, her grip on the child lessens, her pale hand falls to the grass and a small ring rolls from her palm.

All the children fall to their knees and one after the other each one begins to cry, the sound of their mourning carries out of the forest, across the great field of Hyrule and beyond, even stretching to the great halls of the Zora and the Gorons

Only one of the Kokiri that night shed no tears, Jared sat with his knees tucked up to his chin, he had committed the most reviled crime in the Trees domain and he did not know what the punishment for it would be, but he would find out in the morning, even knowing this he did not feel sad and this above all else worried him…

Disclaimer – I do not own any of the characters (except Jared and Sh'in) or any of the places featured within this fanfic, all Zelda related items are the property of Nintendo.

A/N well here it is! My first fic, hope you all enjoy it, because of this being my final year of university I will not be able to update on a regular basis, but I will try to get a chapter up a week at least.

Also there will be a cover image posted on sometime soon, possibly tonight (26/03/05) on my dev-page ( www.luciferous. )

hope you all will look forward to future chapters and art, please Review... Thanks in advance

Shane


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

i

The Kokiri had laboured all night, finally it was complete, somehow they had managed to carve a perfect likeness of Shi'in into the cliff near their village, upon the statue the passage ' For the mother we never had' had been carved into stone, inside a hollow they had made, links mothers body had been placed and sealed away forever.

Before everyone could rest, one more thing needed to be taken care of, Jared's fate. Saria had stayed up all night with the boy, preparing him for the Great Deku Tree's judgement, they knew that Jared had saved the life of the baby now in their peoples care, but Jared had broken the one true law of their realm.

'No blood shall be spilt upon this soil'

The most likely punishment would be banishment, a fate almost worse than death for the Kokiri, for whilst they abide within the woods their lives shall last for many millennia, but in the outside world they would age just as quick as any mortal, Saria had tried to prepare her old friend for this, but slowly she begun to notice he did not care what happened, she could almost sense a feeling of expectancy from Jared, finally the time came and they both walked to the Great Deku Tree's glade in absolute silence.

Whilst Jared's trial went on, two Kokiri looked after the young Link, he was barely one years old but already he showed much interest in the world, crawling at an alarming rate around the small dwelling playing with anything not nailed down and in a Kokiri home nothing is nailed down so whilst laughing at the babies antics they scurry after him trying desperately to stop him breaking every bit of pottery they have, eventually one of them hands baby Link a small straw figure and he happily beats it against the ground for minutes until boredom sets in and he throws it with such force it flies out of the door, Link scrambles after it giggling and the two follow, when they get outside though the laughter on their lips dies.

ii

'_Jared, you know the reasons for this gathering do you not?'_

Jared's head bobs in acknowledgement.

'_Thou hast drawn blood and killed upon this soil, Thou hast broken the one law of my realm…'_

The boys face remained impassive as he said, 'but I saved the boy, I was not quick enough to save the Shei'kah though, for this I know there is punishment'

'_Verily, this is so, even though your heart was in the right, the law still must be obeyed, the price is banishment- ' _

'No…' gasps Saria.

'_But not for life, because your heart was just, you may return here after the tenth winter is over'_

Jared nods once more and turns on his heel, without looking back he walks calmly through the crowd which follow silently behind him, he head directly towards his home, quickly packs all that he believes he will need, and then he walks towards the dwelling where the child is being looked after, as he gets there, Link is sat outside playing with a straw figure, a small smile quickly flickers across Jared's face and he reaches for the small gemstone dagger in his belt, he looms over the baby with the dagger in hand.

Saria quickly grabs his arm, but he shakes her off and crouches down in front of baby Link, who looks up at Jared and makes cooing noises, Jared tussles the boys hair with his free hand, and raises the dagger in the other, the crowd draw in a collective gasp as he brings it down into the dirt before the child.

'This is now yours little one, look after it and cherish it, this small blade saved your life once and it will save it again before the end' he turns and looks deep into Saria's eyes, 'remind the boy of those words my dear friend, I hope I am wrong, but I feel something is coming for him.'

With this he stands quickly making Saria jump, he all but runs towards the village exit, just as he's about to enter the large hollow tree trunk he turns back and calls to Saria 'Look after him, I will want to see a strong young man when I return… I'm counting on it…' with this he disappears into the shadows

iii

Jared tried not to think about what would happen after he left the woods, let alone where he would go, he knew that beyond the woods was a massive expanse of farmland, commonly known as Hyrule field, but the thought of such a wide open space sent shivers down his spine, regardless he strode on, the light getting brighter as the woods thinned and then, suddenly he was out of the woods and into tall grassy pastures.

Jared looks around blinking as his eyes adjust to the new bright sun, far in the distance he can see smoke billowing from the horizon, he reasons that there must be a town over that way because he had heard stories of the amount of smoke men and Hyaline's produced, so with a feeling of adventure in his heart he sets off through the tall summer grass.

Jared hits a dirt path leading in the direction of the smoke, and at first is weary of all the strange footprints in the dirt, but after ten minutes he doesn't see another soul on the road and so he begins to move quicker, he still feels uneasy about his first meeting with the 'tall folk' but he knows that he has to get it over with eventually and so he carries on his way, until he sees a carriage by the side of the road, it stands lopsided due to missing a wheel and when he gets alongside it he sees that the door is splintered and lying by the carriages side, Jared peeks into the inside and quickly turns away and vomits. Inside the carriage a woman's body lies, arrows similar to those used by the Goblins protrude from her chest

Jared turns back to the carriage and stares unseeingly into the carriages interior when he notices movement coming from under the body, without thinking he jumps into the carriage and draws one of his short daggers, he eases the body to one side with surprising strength.

Lying in a small bloodstained bal is a little girl, she opens her eyes and begins to scream but Jared covers her mouth and with one swift move drops his dagger and puts his finger to his mouth shushing the little girl, leaning to her ear he whispers –

"I won't hurt you, I'm a friend."

The little girl nods and looks up into Jared's eyes as a single tear runs down his cheek, he carefully lifts her onto her feet, reclaims his dagger and nimbly leaves the carriage, helping the girl down.

Jared looks on the child with a mixture of pity and concern, enquiring into where she lives the little girl points to a small hill not so far away, on top of the hill is a house surrounded with a sturdy wall of thick logs, a disturbing amount of smoke rises from the enclosure and a tight knot of dread forms in the pit of Jared's stomach, he turns to the young girl and deftly swings her onto his back and begins to jog towards the hill.

With a load nearly the same size as him on his back, Jared runs as fast as he can through shoulder height wild grass, he hits a small dirt road that leads around to the wood enclosed home, he ignores this and heads straight for the back of the wall, he settles the girl down in a bush there and tells her to wait for him to come back for her, she clings to him and he gently untangles her fingers from his tunic and smoothes the knotted hair from her face

"Do not worry little one, I will not be long, this bush will protect you because I have asked it very politely"

With that he lays his hands upon the bush and all its foliage turns a bright green and it grows around the girl and only when she can no longer be seen does the bush stop growing and its leave turn back to their faded green once more. Jared stands and looks up the wall, laying both hands and his forehead to the old wooden log, he sends his thoughts to it and small regular branches sprout from its length to form the rungs of a ladder, he quickly scrambles to the top and looks down into the carnage below.

iv

Miles away on a small rise, several hundred metres away from a large castle down a large black tent undulates gently in the wind, two Iron Knuckle knights in gleaming convoluted black armour stand guard, out of the tent a tall armour clad man strides forth, he stands tall, surveying the land, his flame orange hair held back from his head in a 'warriors tail' a large golden gemstone embedded in his dark green flesh, his eyes burn with hunger as he stares at the castle in the distance. He talks to the Iron knuckles beside him

"We must break through today, this is the last Day of Atonement, the temple priests will seal the door to the sacred realm for another 15 tears and our forces cannot wait that long"

"Your orders, Lord Gannondorf?"

"Bring the walls down… bring me the shattered temple door… we attack in one hour, all forces, everything we've got… get the word out amongst the Moblin horde… today the war ends!"

The Iron knuckle knights march off among the Moblin masses, and wave of excitement passes among the large army gathered at the foot of Gannondorf's tent, he turns around to look at the massive siege engine behind the tent, he makes a sign and the giant catapults begin to roll forward, one by one they draw up to the edge of the hill.

All Zelda related items belong to Nintendo, not me, although Jared belongs to me, he's very useful in the garden, yup very useful.

Now I am finished with university you can expect regular chapters now… yay!

Here is something for you to think about… Who is that little girl? Any guesses?

How will Castle town survive an onslaught the likes of which haven't been seen since… Peter Jackson's rendition of the battle on the pelennor fields?

Tune in next time to find out… all reviews are welcome

And thanks to the only reviewer of the first chapter Darksoulki!


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